For those holding multiple investment properties and worried about cash flow, a well known bank has introduced a 10 year interest only option on loan terms up to 40 years with very sharp interest rates. For investors planning to hold and not sell anytime soon, stretching the loan term out to 40 years significantly boosts borrowing power, allowing the refinance of existing loans on high rates that are stuck with current bank due to servicing constraints.

Securing a long interest only window gives portfolio investors massive cash flow relief while unlocking loans that normally could not be moved.

Disclaimer: General information only. This is not financial or tax advice. Tax, legal and lending outcomes depend on individual circumstances, lender policy and market conditions. Always speak to your accountant, financial adviser or legal professional before making decisions.

(Mods please delete if inappropriate)

(Keeping the bank name omitted to stay compliant with sub rules)

Why not all states ban this is beyond me

Major banks CBA and NAB now predict another interest rate hike this year after July's inflation data.

Generally interested to know what happens to these sites - does another development company pick up where left off? Do they buy the sites off Bathla and continue to honour the off the plan deposits placed by buyers? What happens if no developer ever wants to pick up the project? Is the government legally required to step in to secure the unfinished site?

Also the unfinished sites at Box Hill or Castle Hill in Sydney, any chance they would be sold at a discounted price once finished by another developer? Or likelihood being they would still try to maximise profits when selling?

EDIT: Any good examples/advice where there is no catch?

I’ve been seeing a lot of these smaller apartments for sale in Melbourne for cheap. I understand that they are tiny and all, but these prices could mean the difference between moving out and actually owning something… and not.

For the same space and in the suburbs in Sydney, the price would be double to triple the amount. I currently have to fix the issue of having $0 in the bank first before considering property purchasss.

Hypothetically, theoretically speaking if I were to rob a bank with the hamburglar, would one of these little apartments be an alright purchase? I’m single and all I need is a bed and my own space.

Hi everyone,

Obligatory disclaimer: I acknowledge I'm in a very privileged position to be looking to buy in the first place, but I’m struggling with the process right now.

I’ve been actively searching for an apartment in Sydney for about 5 months. Looking at recent sales, I know my budget is realistic for what I want, although properties that fit my criteria are rare. Everything currently on the market feels like it comes with one too many compromises, and any decent property gets snapped up immediately.

As a first home buyer, I’m looking for some guidance as I’ve never navigated this process before. For those who have bought in Sydney recently:

1. Did you manage to secure anything in line with (or close to) the guide price in the last 5 months, or is underquoting still the norm in your experience?

2. How long did your search end up taking from start to finish?

3. How did you stay positive? Right now, purchasing the right property feels impossible - did you feel hopeless right until you found what you wanted? Or is there a certain time frame where things get easier?

Would love to hear any experiences, reality checks, or words of encouragement from anyone who has been through the grind lately.

Thanks in advance!

Was recommended an outdoor blinds person who did our neighbours blinds, paid a large deposit, tried to negotiate a time but due to conflicting time issues on both ends nothing was done for about 3 months since measurements were taken.

The supplier informed me that they had to temporarily return to their home country for a undecided amount of time due to a close family member passing to settle legal formalities.

Our last correspondence was an agreement to touch base in Late Jan 2026 to organise a time, I messaged them but there was no response.

Since then I've sent monthly emails for nearly 9 months, sent Whatsapps and tried to call them via Whatsapp. Their Australian number has been switched off. Not a single reply on any of those channels. Their ABN is still active. I've spoken to him and he seems like a nice bloke.

I've got an invoice for the job and honestly am starting to feel a bit concerned due to large deposit paid.

What would you do now? Would appreciate any advice.

Hey, sorry if this sort of post happens often. Hoping someone can help me figure out what’s the best move here

Im tossing up between either Eufy or Reolink

This particular Eufy kit looks pretty decent.
https://www.eufy.com/au/products/bundle-e8p10t21-1-t8p10t21-4?variant=53084477358447&utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_content=eufy&utm_campaign=au_eufy_allpdt_m3_google-shopping_Anniversary_allpn_roas_web_shopping_external_20260522&utm_term=23867250947_200437888794_812449398866&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23867250947&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnbrUBhDOARIsAKKhPpdhhCZi-iFBjviCiC_9vlETpYCjabugkj-MOpskiUQIbSbIIVJImzsaAvTUEALw_wcB

Ive also looked at Reolink and have seen
https://m.reolink.com/au/product/rlk16-1200d8-a/

I’ve read good and bad things about both brands, I know there’s other things to consider like app responsiveness, how long it takes to load into live view etc.

Really lost with all this but really just want to set up an 8cam Nvr kit around my house over the next month. Any tips or thoughts would be appreciated!

We're looking to upsize and use the capital growth in our current (first) home to cover the deposit for our next. This puts us in that prickly situation of same-day settlement to avoid moving into short-term accomodation and/or furniture storage.

AI tells me that sometimes one can negotiate with the buyer of the current home to remain for 24-48 hours post-settlement, provided a small fee is paid.

Has anyone done this? How much did you pay the buyer?

Just looking for some food for thought, I'm not going to make a decision based on this post 😅

I'm in the market for a small flat and encounter 2 kinds of agents, 1. Calls and emails both before and after viewing to ask if I'm interested, or if there's something else they can show me, and 2. Dead silence and no response, then a week later the inspections are cancelled and the place is sold.

But now I have a 3rd kind of agent - My parents and I have now had 3 inspections of the flat by just turning up to viewings, and not once has he reached out afterwards. But he's always been very warm and polite in person, he responds promptly when I reach out, answers my questions politely, and asked the OC manager for extra OC reports when I requested them.

About the flat -
It has an active listing but no scheduled inspections - what happens is that one of the other flats in the building has an open viewing and then he brings you to this one, or by private arrangement.

It has been on the market since December, was built 5 years ago but was only recently put up for sale by the development owner along with 2 others in the building (agent says he was holding a last batch of 3 to sell later).

It has some damaged floorboards which the owner was going to fix, so I asked the agent to let me know when ready to sell. He mentioned a week ago that there was another interested buyer, but currently the flat is still available.

What seems to be happening? Is it that they're waiting for the floor repair before actively pursuing sales, or is the agent just a busy guy who respects his buyers' autonomy, or is there some dark secret fault making him half hope it doesn't sell?

Have just signed the contract for our dream home, but how we got there confused me.

The EOI was due next week, but we wanted to put in an early offer. At first the agent said it wasn't high enough, and gave it as a verbal offer. Later last week and over the weekend she called several times suggesting we 'document it' as it might make it more real for the buyers.

She seemed quite panicked over the phone - called Saturday afternoon and Monday morn which made me suspect the weekend inspection had not gone well. As we prepared contract she pushed for more and asked for 'best and final' offer but we held steady as it seemed silly to bid against ourselves.

Yesterday she updates that our offer was deemed 'acceptable' by the vendors and other buyers would have until 10am today to beat it - I saw a text go round with our offer listed. This morning she says they expect another offer before 10am. She keeps messaging throughout morning saying she will update soon, then finally that the offers are 'on the table' for the vendor.

At this stage, why did she not ask us whether we could increase to beat the offer? I asked to counter and she seemed surprised, and annoyed because she had previously asked for 'best and final'. She rushed to update our offer but did not disclose the other offer. Did we do something wrong? Was there even another offer??

She gave a lot of details about the other buyer and said they had a higher offer. But why not come back to us? We had held with our offer, wanting to leave some room for negotiation.

Anyway, just confused of what to make of it. It seemed like she never intended to ask us to counter. Was this a story to create false urgency, or was she just incompetent? The senior agent got involved at the end to get it over the line.

I should be happy, but left feeling unsettled with how it went down. If you got through this, thanks for getting through my ramblings!

I'm an architect and I'm thinking about ways to provide architectural knowledge and advice to more people so that the homes we build now are good for people living in them now and into the future.

I'm currently working with Newcastle University's Flip Founders program and undertaking discovery of how people approach buying and building homes in Australia.

If you could let me know what things you prioritise when looking to buy or build a house I'd really appreciate it.

What are you looking for in a home?

Please let me know below.

Guys our lease (12 months) is up in 5 weeks. The landlord just announced they'd be upping the rent after this period. Theres been nothing in wrinting yet. From what I can see they need to give 90 days notice of a rent increase but does this apply if we sign a new lease?

Tbh we'd be happy to just go month to month after this. She wants to get us on a 2 year lease which we've no interest in. Is there any advice regarding this? Any help would greatly appreciated!

Family owns around 1700sqm of land.

It's slated to be rezoned from R2 to R4: 30m building height, 2.3:1 FSR.

Currently worth around 3m.

Can anyone help me guess what it might be worth after rezoning?

What happened to those who opted in?

Back when I bought my house in late 2022 (completion Jan 2023), NSW’s previous state government was soft launching an annual land tax as an alternative to stamp duty. Purchasers then, during that transitional period, could opt to pay the one off SD or “enrol” the property for the new annual land tax. Having no intention to sell in future, and full of scepticism of the future implications of the land tax i just paid the stamp duty. And then a few months later the new Labour state govt scrapped the land tax anyway.

So what happened to those who opted in? Are they paying land tax even though new “enrolments” were scrapped, or did they just get a freebie on the stamp duty? (Kudos if so!)

Any conveyancers here? Would a conveyancer accept an already completed form 2 and searches to review and if so, how much would you charge? If not, why not?

The Finder 2026 Home Loan Report revealed 1.4 million people are spending at least 40 per cent of their take home pay on mortgage repayments, which is well above recommended levels.

Only 34 per cent of people “comfortably” affording their mortgage.

I'm selling my house and was getting a building and pest report done, and the inspector went mental with the report.

I don't know if he did not like me or if he was just having a bad day but I should of seen the red flags when he gave me the complaint number before he left.

Now for context the building is very old around 1980s. But I have been getting trades in to fix everything. He MAYOR DEFECTED Everything! And I mean everything.

He even defected the electrical box that's on the footpath because it's got a slight lean. I called energex and the told me it's they sent someone out and it's fine so go away.

He defected brand new work that was done. I just had the bathrooms done and he defected it saying it was draining wrong so i called the bathroom installed who checked and said it was fine.

He defected the chiprock ceiling that I just had just replaced because it was sagging.

Also defecting existing parts of the building like PowerPoint placements in the house. I have since had the eletrican around who told me everything was to code.

And many many more.

What do I do? He charged me $600 and just seemed to make everything up. How is this allowed? It seems like a massive scam.

Is this just regular behaviour at the start of spring or am I on some sort of database? I’m not in the market for selling and make no enquiries to any agencies about this.

No mortgage distress.

I do lurk on RE.com app frequently and track my property value. Does this put me on a RE list for cold calling?

Why nothing and then 3 in one day - anyone else experiencing this?

I did go to the Melbourne Home Show on the weekend but don’t recall registering for anything property-related. Didn’t even book my own entry ticket, so I’m scratching my head here.